And we’re the global generation
With our frequent flyer miles
Our fluency in foreign tongues
And friends across continents.
…
We fill our hollows with zinfandel
And raise toasts to 18-hour workdays
And rattle off names of all the massages
We need to de-stress, unwind, feel human again.
…
Strange words we consume,
Rigatoni, kim chi, sake and bagels,
And molten meltdowns in the candle-scented café
At the corner of 7th and 17th.
…
With our international degrees
And accents from back home
We walk our pedicured feet around cities
With elation, with pride, with joy,
That comes from loving
Securely one’s own.
…
Relationships are always in the plural,
Commitment necessitates a therapist and much pondering
And babies before 30 is suicide:
Only fools or the very brave would attempt it.
…
We have memories of snowstorms
And Mardi gras parades
And none of the nights
We stumbled home drunk.
…
And reunions stir up nostalgia
That only barely settles
At the bottom of our core
Threatening to regurgitate
At a moment’s notice
(And sometimes, not even that.)
…
We dance the salsa with abandon
Reworking the heavy kathak tread
Learned in a blurred, sepia childhood,
Our bodies unashamed,
Our spirits unfettered
Our lives the way we dreamed them.
…
And pillows are for soaking
All the broken dreams
That look around quickly
Before gushing forth and flooding
The silent, unjudging night.
P.S. Haaaaalp! How does one add line breaks to this darn thing?!
Wisdom Wears Neon Pyjamas 
The last stanza — brilliance!
The teary shrivelled raisin can become
Lusciously delicious when soaked in rum
That’s Life, my dear girl
Sometimes gone in a whirl
So, give it your whole heart, Lady — and then some!
That was lovely and melancholic. Perfect for a sunny Saturday afternoon in an alien city.
(And you use “” in the html for line breaks)
oops it gobbled up my html code.
use “” (with no spaces)
ok i give up.
google html for line break.
Loved it! Except that not all nights are “unjudging”.
Beautiful. Makes more sense to me now, than when I saw it some months ago… maybe I am improving in intellect…
M4: I think the earlier stanzas sort of worked toward culminating into the final one. It wasn’t a conscious process, though, just turned out that way. 🙂
Aunty G: Yum, rum and raisins reminds me of Christmas pudding. It’s one of my favoritest things ever.
Broom: Thanks, girl. And welcome to the blog. 🙂
D: In my experience, they’re the most accepting hours of the clock.
Grimescene: Must be the fabulous company you’ve been keeping. 😉
Thought it was brilliant observation first time around, found bits and pieces of myself the second time I read it.
badiya hai.
Nino’s Mum: Thenkyoo ji. 😉 That happens to me too.
Orangs jammies, the non-rhyming poetry kinda reminds me of my own writing… though mine is a little more childish, but its nice to read something written in a style i use on my blog.
🙂
Wise words! And I love Aunty G’s comment (as always I guess!!)
kye: It’s pretty commonly used, kye. Welcome to familiarity. 🙂
gooddaysunshine: Have to live up to my name, non? 😉